The so-called "capital", that is, the capital of a country, is the seat of the highest organ of power in the country. Where the capital is located has great significance and influence on the country's politics, economy, military, culture, and society. Once the capital is established, it will not change easily unless there is a change in power or a change in dynasty.
Throughout the thousands of years of Chinese history, the relocation of the capital for various reasons can be roughly divided into two types: active capital relocation and passive capital relocation.
Taking the initiative to relocate the capital may promote development, but it may also create hidden dangers
The initiative to move the capital is basically to meet the needs of the development of the situation and expand the area of rule in order to better control the situation in the whole country. Therefore, in the eyes of many, it is positive and conducive to the prosperity of the dynasty. A typical example of this is "Pan Geng Qianyin", which refers to the 19th monarch of the Shang Dynasty, Pan Geng, who moved the capital from the flooded lower reaches of the Yellow River to the fertile and vast Northern Henan Plain, ensuring the stability of the political situation, laying the foundation for the development of productive forces and the formation of brilliant civilization, and realizing the prosperity of the Shang Dynasty.
But in fact, some active capital relocation, although promoting social development, will also accelerate the demise of the dynasty. For example, the relocation of the capital of Emperor Xiaowen of the Northern Wei Dynasty accelerated the pace of integration of the Chinese nation, and the Xianbei people ended their nomadic life and learned the advanced culture and production methods of the Central Plains. However, after the capital moved south, the threat of nomadic people such as Rouran decreased, and the status of military towns such as Woye, Huaishuo, Wuchuan, Fumu, Rouxuan, and Huaihuang in the north declined and became more and more marginalized, and it was these border defense soldiers and civilians who were gradually despised or even abandoned who revolted continuously, which eventually led to the demise of the Northern Wei Dynasty.
Passive capital relocation is basically gone, and it is difficult to do anything more
Most of the passive relocation of the capital was forced to move the capital at the time of the decline of the country and the invasion of "foreign enemies", in order to save the crisis and continue the rule. In the western zhou dynasty, King Ping of Zhou, in the face of Xi Rong's advances, was forced to move the capital from Fenghao (丰镐, in modern Xi'an, Shaanxi) surrounded by strong enemies to the safer Luoyang, Henan; After the fall of the Northern Song Dynasty, Zhao Zhuo proclaimed himself emperor at Guide (present-day Shangqiu, Henan), but in order to avoid the sharp edge of the Jin Kingdom, he moved the capital of the state from Guide to Lin'an (present-day Hangzhou, Zhejiang), southeast of An. The Jin Dynasty threatened to continue its rule by genghis Khan's army and moved its capital from Zhongdu (present-day Beijing) to Beijing (present-day Kaifeng, Henan).
Most of these capital moves occurred at the end of their rule, which was a passive act after losing their political and military initiative, and after the capital was moved, most of these dynasties had weakened their national strength and were in a quiet corner, and although they barely continued their rule, it was difficult to make great achievements. Before the Qing Dynasty, the threats faced by the Chinese nation, in addition to a small number of Wokou (i.e., Japanese pirates) on the southeast coast, mainly came from nomadic tribes in the north, such as the Xiongnu in the Han Dynasty, the Xianbei in the Southern and Northern Dynasties, the Jin and Mongols in the Song Dynasty, and the Jurchens in the Ming Dynasty. Therefore, this passive relocation of the capital, the mainstream direction is from north to south migration.
In ancient times, the attack was from north to south, and the passive relocation of the capital was also all the way to the south
From Jiayuguan in Gansu in the west to the coast of Liaoning in the east, the "Great Wall" stretching for more than 20,000 kilometers is the first line of defense set up to resist the "invasion" of the north at the beginning of the Qin and Han dynasties. In addition to the artificially built Great Wall, there are three natural rivers, namely the Yellow River, the Huai River, and the Yangtze River, which are the traditional barriers of the Central Plains regime against the nomadic tribes in the north.
If even the Yangtze River cannot be defended, it can continue to migrate south, and the Zhao and Song Dynasties have done a very thorough job in this regard. From The Northern Song Dynasty's Bieliang, the Southern Song Dynasty's Lin'an, and all the way to Fuzhou, where the Song Duanzong was in exile, the direction of the capital was always from north to south, and by the time Lu Xiufu carried the last emperor of the Zhao and Song Dynasties and committed suicide by throwing himself into the sea, he had retreated to the South China Sea.
Beginning in the late Qing Dynasty, the greater threat came from the direction of the sea
In the 18th century, the world situation underwent major changes, the Western capitalist countries have completed the industrial revolution one after another, and science and technology and productive forces have developed at a high speed. As an oriental island country, Japan also became the first country in Asia to embark on the road of industrialization, and gradually became one of the world's great powers. China, on the other hand, was still under the closed rule of the Qing Dynasty and was gradually decaying.
When the capitalist countries could not meet their needs because their domestic raw material production areas and markets could not meet their needs, they began to invade and expand wildly. China, which has a vast land, a large population, and a vast market, soon became the primary target of division and devouring by the great powers. In modern times, imperialism has launched one aggression after another against China from the sea by virtue of its strong ships and guns.
The coastal areas were vulnerable, and the relocation of the capital began from east to west
The Opium War of 1840, the ensuing Second Opium War, the Sino-French War, the Sino-Japanese War, and the invasion of China by the Eight-Power Alliance all entered the Chinese mainland from the port cities on China's eastern coast. At the same time, Tsarist Russia and the British Empire also coveted China's northeast, Xinjiang and Tibet on land. In modern times, China is facing internal and external troubles, and all kinds of contradictions are complicated and complicated.
From the middle and late Qing Dynasty onwards, the safety of the northwest and southwest regions was significantly higher than that of the eastern and southern coastal areas. During the invasion of China by the Eight-Power Alliance, Empress Dowager Cixi and her party fled all the way from Beijing to Xi'an, Shaanxi Province, for temporary refuge; after the outbreak of the All-out War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, Chiang Kai-shek's regime selected the wartime capital to accompany Chongqing in the upper reaches of the Yangtze River and put forward the slogan of building a large rear area in the southwest, which is a typical representative of this change.